Educating and training library practitioners: a comparative history with trends and recommendations - includes appendix on history of library education

Rothstein's (1985) article, "Why People Really Hate Library Schools," accompanied by his anecdotal "An Anthology of Abuse: 97 Years of Criticism of Library Schools," posits five main theories about the why. Because alums age and the profession moves on, finding a definitive explanation is difficult. Alumni negativity does seem to follow a predictable pattern as the alums age. Rothstein quotes Cyryl Houle to the effect that "the voice of the aggrieved alumnus is always loud in the land and, no matter what the profession, the burden of complaint is the same" (p. 45). For the first five years, alumni think "they should have been taught more practical techniques" (p. 45). Then there is a five-year period of wishing they had had more basic theory, five years of wishing for more administrative content, then another five of wishing for a broader social and historical context for the field, and finally five years of wishing it had been a "broader orientation to all knowledge, scientific and humane" (p. 45).

Even Houle's sequence seems inadequate to explain the ninety-seven years of consistent criticism documented in Rothstein's "Anthology of Abuse." Rothstein concludes that the unique factor in the criticism arises from the kind of personality that chooses librarianship and which does so relatively late in life. Rothstein cites studies showing that, compared with other populations, librarians are, among other things, shy, suspicious, apprehensive, undisciplined, tense, and conservative. Librarians are shown to be loners and outsiders given to self-doubt because they are readers, and they are readers because they do not fit into any group. A further study cited by Rothstein shows librarians to be "self-reflective, inner-directed individuals whose motivations and rewards are intrinsic rather than extrinsic... motivated more by self-respect than by the respect and admiration of others" (p. 48).

While Rothstein cited studies that found library school teachers more bold than working librarians, the Pads (1990) study of "Why Library Schools Fail" identified behaviors that would be consistent with the personality characteristics of Rothstein's librarians. Paris found that library school closings are accompanied by a sense that they are too small and too politically isolated from the rest of academe to seem important. So isolated are they, in fact, that their attempts to move into information science and management were seen as encroachments on the territory of other departments.

The Appropriate Role of Accreditation in Library Education

Accreditation is a process whereby an outside agency attests to the quality of an educational program and must not be confused with the activities or criteria by which individuals become certified, credentialed, or licensed, even though graduation from an accredited institution may often be a step, or even the step, toward a credential. Universities, colleges, and community colleges are accredited as a whole by their appropriate regional associations. Professional programs, however, may be accredited by groups involved with the profession. Accreditation is done at the professional school level in librarianship by an ALA committee. There is no professional certification mechanism for doctoral, bachelor, or associate education programs. Further, the schools affected might very well resist such efforts as incursions.